As any industry veteran can tell you, it's hard to make a new restaurant go, harder still to keep it going for decades. Even in a city as historic as Boston, our long-lived restaurants are few. So I'm always happy to find, say, a J.J. Foley's Cafe, the 100-year-old South End tavern run by the grandson and great-grandson of its namesake founder. Likewise, I'm grateful I finally got to Mandy & Joe's, a friendly neighborhood spot that opened in 1948 and is now in its third generation of family ownership. It has achieved that rare longevity by turning out classic American fare in its bright, clean, workmanlike setting at gentle, everyday prices.

Judging from the wood paneling and tangerine accents, the 10-booth, 17-stool diner set-up here got a makeover sometime in the 1970s, but the menu would offer few surprises to a time traveler from 1950. Breakfasts follow the mid-century greasy-spoon playbook, minus the grease, exemplified by a plate of two eggs cooked to order with bacon, ham, or sausage ($4.25), good corned-beef hash ($6.95), or a fine little diner steak ($10.95). The accompanying home fries are well-crusted and mercifully free of that ubiquitous orange paprika-and-MSG spice mix. Three-egg omelets ($4.95–$8.50) are enormous and overstuffed. The griddle turns out okay French toast ($3.50) and dandy buttermilk pancakes ($3.75–$4.75).

Lunch hits similarly vintage notes with an excellent cheeseburger club ($6.25), a messy but delicious hot roast-beef sandwich ($6.25) with grilled onions, melted cheese, and mayo, and an admirable oversize Reuben ($7.95). Younger customers should probably sample what I call the "grandpa dishes" before they vanish from the modest-restaurant landscape forever: sandwiches of liverwurst ($3.95), sardines ($4.95), and ham salad ($4.25); a knockwurst plate ($6.95); a heartwarming chicken pot pie ($6.95); calves liver with bacon ($6.95); and that frugal Yankee staple, fishcakes and beans ($5.25). How many places serve Jell-O with whipped cream ($1.95) or house-made pudding ($3.95) anymore? Naturally, the filter coffee ($1.50) is wonderful, as is the old-school New England frappe ($3.95).

Ultimately, what makes dining at this venerable lunch counter so appealing is its combination of solid execution and unvarnished sincerity. The Marino family has plainly been doing this kind of humble, high-value American diner and Americanized Jewish delicatessen fare, with barely a menu update, for more than half a century. Mandy & Joe's conveys a genuine sense of continuity with a bygone time: there's nothing faux, winking, or retro about it. It's the real deal.

Sensing I've enjoyed the revival of 1950s-style French bistros, but it's been quite a while since I could review a full-tilt example of 1980s French "nouvelle cuisine," which brought on bipolar reform.

American Craft If American Craft was a brand-new restaurant, I still would be an enthusiast. But it’s even better as is, because it’s the end result of a story of hard knocks.

Corner Pub of Chinatown Some folks bemoaned the closing of Weggie's, a Leather District dive that slung drinks for years to Big Dig workers (which presumably accounts for some of the workmanship).

Mt. Everest Kitchen Asked to create pithy descriptions of obscure cuisines, food writers often triangulate, using familiar geographic signposts to nudge readers into the general neighborhood.

Symphony 8 Restaurant & Bar Everyone wants to have a gastro-pub with comfort food, but you have to be able to cook a little bit to sustain one. It also helps to draw a clean draught beer, maintain a quality wine list, and sweep the floor.

El Mondonguito I keep finding good, inexpensive food in Boston in unlikely places: a commercial shipyard, a construction-company lot, a mall food court, and what looks like someone's house in a residential neighborhood.

Arbri Cafe I loved the Café Apollonia when it opened in this space in 2004 as what was then Boston's sole denominated Albanian restaurant.

Con Sol Three-year-old ethnic bargain spot Con Sol snuck under reviewers' radar with an Iberian menu that draws mostly on Portuguese-American food — a cuisine that feels native to long-time Cantabrigians, but otherwise is little known north of New Bedford and Fall River or west of Provincetown.

PORCHETTA ARROSTO AT CINQUECENTO | January 18, 2013 As a South Ender, I find it easy to admire the smooth professionalism and crowd-pleasing instincts of the Aquitaine Group, which operates six of its eight restaurants in the neighborhood, including Metropolis, Union, Aquitaine, and Gaslight.